Miles Daniel
Born 30th September 2012My husband and I always knew we wanteda doula; friends interstate had a doula for their second birth and rated theirbirth experience very positively. When we met Cherie we felt a positiveconnection and knew we wanted her to be our doula for what was to be our firstbaby.Cherie provided wonderful support in the form of both meetingsand helpful information during the pregnancy.When it came close to my due date, I felt reasonably prepared for labourand had a very clear idea of the kind of labour I would like to experience (as naturalas possible with no pain relief). I was counting on Cherie to keep me strongwhen the going got hard.As it turns out, I endured a rather short labour with nomore than five hours of active labour. During that time I banged stress ballstogether as my main method of coping but by the time Cherie arrived I felt Iwas starting to lose control and the labour was very intense. As soon as Cheriesat down next to me she started rubbing my back and wiping my neck with a coldcloth. The thought ran through my head that she was worth every penny. It’s notthat my husband couldn’t have done these things, it is just that he wouldn’thave known to do this (although he was very supportive and helpful in otherways) and I would never have known to ask him. Having Cherie at this time wasinvaluable. I remember the pleasant smell of her wafting scented oils in frontof my nose, a nice distraction.I relied on her to be there for every contraction and havingher there gave me a sense of calm. In the end I got the exactly the kind oflabour I wanted. Not once did I even think about asking for pain relief,instead only wondering what I could do differently, and due to Cherie’sexperience she had plenty of ideas.I highly recommend having a doula as it made my first labourand birth experience one that I look back on positively. Even though I now knowwhat giving birth feels like, I still feel that having a doula the second timearound would be just as valuable. I feel truly lucky that we were able to sharethe birth of Miles with such a caring and supportive person.Fiona.